News Windows 8 launch date confirmed as 26th October

Also longer battery life on laptop, and not to mention the super long list of features it has.

 

It's worth upgrading for this reason alone - Windows 8 is very close in terms of performance to my Arch Linux install, which says it all really. You can mostly ignore Metro if you choose to as well - hit Win+D to jump to the desktop, pin all your apps to the taskbar and don't return to the start screen. It's like using a cleaner, slicker Windows 7.

 

If I can get it cheap with my student discount, I will.

 

Windows 8 Pro Upgrade will be available for ALL at 40$. You can upgrade Windows XP, Vista and 7 to Win 8 Pro.

 

If this is true I could be tempted. Performance interests me, not a shiny OS with groovy animated menus.

To be totally honest, apart from being aversive to the idea of Metro I am totally ignorant when it comes to Windows 8 -- it interests me that much.

Successive Windows releases are becoming increasingly nannyish to the point of being unusable to a tech savvy user -- I should be telling the operating system what *I* want it to do, not the other way around. Granted Windows 7 isn't too bad, but the interface still seems largely arbitrarily organized to me, despite using it for a good while now.

I admit I'm backwards and come from the Windows 2000 school of interface design. I don't like an operating system and programs that look like they were designed by the teletubbies.

I'm well aware and accept we're not the target audience for Windows -- joe user is.

This is why I like *nix -- you don't like a Window manager? You change it. You don't want any GUI? Dump X altogether.

 

I think this deal is what may finally entice me to finally move on from Windows XP. Yeah yeah, I know - but it just works!

 

That's the perversity that is Windows 8. You've got this excellent OS which is blighted by the presence of the Metro UX.

 

So go Linux. It's hard-core, versatile, powerful and free.

 

Am I the only one hoping to see this tank like Vista?

 

Yes. You just lack vision.

 

This is the first version of Windows I have zero interest in upgrading to. If I could turn off Metro then my interest would return.

 

I'll be upgrading. I like the start screen.

 

Yeah, but you've got all the caveats that go with it -- lack of user base on the desktop (when compared with Windows), sketchy/non-existent hardware support, the extreme ball-ache that goes hand in hand with setting certain things up, gaming support...

I know die hards will probably contest most of the above points but it's still the case that it's still quite a niche desktop environment and suffers because of it.

I wouldn't willfully wish for something to fail, it's just the skeptic in me sees this as a monetizing exercise involving more bloat and UI muddling. I'd like nothing more than Microsoft to attain OS nirvana as they're no doubt proselytizing.

 

But isn't that what hard-core users want? A powerful, versatile OS that makes no pandering compromises towards ordinary mainstream users?

If you want a mainstream desktop with almost universal support, you will have to accept that it is designed for mainstream users.

It's just a bit rough around the edges right now, but in three years' time, everybody will wonder why not all OS' are like this.

 

Admittedly, when it comes around to my next OS reinstall; I may consider Windows 8. Although this will likely be a year or two further down the line. More bulldozer performance would be nice, but meh. It does almost everything I want at the moment.

 

Win+D

 

I have to ask if you've actually ever used Windows 8 ...on the desktop ...with a keyboard and a mouse? Because, if you have I cannot for the life of me understand how you could classify it as usable. Microsoft hasn't even taken a moments pause trying to make Metro easily accessible with a mouse and keyboard. Some touch gestures could have been easily translated into meaningful mouse gestures, e.g. moving around the start screen. It's very clear that Metro is completely geared toward touch devices with "legacy input device" support added as a mere afterthought.

Yes, I can just skip Windows 8. And as it stands I will. It just pains me to see this excellent OS being handicapped so on the desktop.

And please stop with this "mainstream users" stuff. Mainstream users don't really have a say or choice in this matter. Windows 8 will come pre-installed on whatever PC the buy off the shelf, but that doesn't mean they'll actually like it. More AIOs will probably now be shipped with touch screens, but I can't see this as being an anywhere near ergonomical solution. If you have a desktop PC just stretch out your arm towards your monitor and try "emulating" touch control. Pain in the a**, right? Nothing you would want to do for any length of time.

/rant

 

Sort of...at least, as far as I know. I know it was technically possible to strip IE out of XP (had been somewhat popular with the nLite sort of crowd.) However, it does break some things - .chm help files are dependent on the IE engine and so will not work if you strip IE. There are some things like that, but I can't recall them at the moment.

Personally, I don't necessarily have a problem with IE being integrated into Windows itself - inevitably, I still run across sites that only work correctly in IE (which is just inexcusable in 2012, imo.) Plus, my primary browser being Opera, I do still need a second browser (although IE9 kind of sucks still, so I also have FF.) Storage being (formerly, at least) cheap, I don't mind the space three browsers take up (plus for dev purposes, IE and FF are good test browsers, since they have an enormous chunk of marketshare - things might be written to standards and work beautifully in Opera, but IE is retarded with it, and FF might have some minor funkiness.) And I refuse to put Chrome on my PC.

The stupid thing about the EU being all pissy about the SP1 flaw is that no one noticed for over a year. How big a deal is it, really?

And Nexxo - no. Not everyone wants to spend forever dinking around with configuring the PC. Some of us might dig it occasionally, but mostly prefer to use their PCs. Once there is a desktop distro of Linux that seems to be as mature as Windows (much as you'll hate my having drawn the comparison), I'll look again. Until then, I'll stick with Windows - I used XP for 5 years, I don't see a problem with doing the same with Win7.

 

I would like to see a specialized os for my gaming desktop. Maybe steam on linux will one day translate into that. For my laptop, windows 7 is great. Windows 8 is tempting with its lesser resource usage and new features. Maybe windows 9 will be just all out fantastic.

 

24 months from now I wager that....

85% of metro haters and win 8 doom sayers will have willingly upgraded for one killer feature or another.

8% will have a win 8 machine in the house and grudgingly admit the OS has some benefits.

5% will have abandoned windows for OSX / Linux / iOS / Android

1% will still be on windows 7 because it's the best OS ever.

1% will still be on XP because it's the best OS ever.